BODY AND SOUL
Scen.: Oscar Micheaux. Int.: Paul Robeson (Reverendo Isaiah T. Jenkins/suo fratello Sylvester), Julia Theresa Russell (Isabelle), Mercedes Gilbert (Martha Jane), Lawrence Chenault (Yello-Curley Hinds), Marshall Rogers (proprietario del bar clandestino), Lillian Johnson (sorella Ca’line), Madame Robinson (sorella Lucy), Chester A. Alexander (diacono Simpkins), Walter Cornick (fratello Amos). Prod.: Micheaux Film Company DCP. D.: 105’. Col. (from a tinted nitrate print)
Film Notes
In 1925, independent African American film producer Oscar Micheaux released his thirteenth film, Body and Soul. One of only three of Micheaux’s surviving silent films, along with Within our Gates and Symbol of the Unconquered (both 1920), Body and Soul stands as a key example of the silent era of American race filmmaking: films made with predominantly Black casts for segregated African American audiences. Body and Soul also marks the screen debut of famed actor and singer Paul Robeson. Displaying impressive range, Robeson plays twins who have opposite characteristics: a charlatan masquerading as a preacher, and his brother Sylvester, an upstanding aspiring inventor. The story centers on the lives of Martha Jane (Mercedes Gilbert), a hard-working laundress, and her daughter Isabelle (Julia Theresa Russell). Isabelle is in love with mild-mannered Sylvester, but Martha Jane pushes her toward the Reverend, not realizing that he is in fact a con man. The consequences of her blind faith are dire.
As a novelist and filmmaker, Micheaux was unflinching in his critique of hypocrisy and committed to realism over idealism – “to lay before the race a cross section of its own life, to view the colored heart from close range” – as he told the African American newspaper “The Pittsburgh Courier” upon completing filming of Body and Soul in late 1924, “The recognition of our true situation, will react in itself as a stimulus for self-advancement.” However, on its release, Body and Soul was sharply criticized in the African American press for its portrayal of a corrupt minister and its inclusion of scenes deemed harmful to the image of Black respectability. Further, Micheaux was forced to substantially edit the 9,000ft, nine-reel film to pass state censor boards. The surviving version is based on the heavily censored five-reel release print. Despite the cuts, Body and Soul remains the most coherent of Micheaux’s surviving silent films and, thanks to Micheaux’s powerful storytelling and Robeson’s magnetic screen presence, an unforgettable experience.
Allyson Nadia Field